Sprint PCS affiliate iPCS added more subscribers Q3 than last yea...
Sprint PCS affiliate iPCS added more subscribers Q3 than last year, but higher churn led to reduced net adds, it said Friday. Churn rose to 2.8 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from last year, reducing net adds almost 40…
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percent to 10,100 from 16,800 in 2006. It ended the quarter with 622,000 total subscribers. Sprint has bought all of its old PCS affiliates except iPCS, most recently acquiring Northern PCS in August (CD Aug 3 p9). Eventually Sprint probably will buy iPCS, but is waiting to resolve litigation and arbitration proceedings against the affiliate, Jeffries analyst Jonathan Schildkraut said in an interview. Sprint could buy iPCS by year end if a resolution comes, he said. But the departure of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee and promotion of ex-Nextel official Paul Saleh to acting CEO may slow talks, he said. “It’s been my impression that Paul Saleh was the guy holding [a deal] up,” Schildkraut said. Nextel was a “blue-collar, fighting man’s” carrier, and Saleh was a “big part” of that “combative” culture, he said. Unless Saleh has mellowed, he probably won’t play “peace maker” in the Sprint-iPCS conflict, he said.